“Truly I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3).
This part of the Gospel is read to his congregation by the pastor of the German Lutheran church, priest Friedrich. This church and village were built by German colonists living near Odessa in Ukraine, as well as many settlements around it: Gross Liebenthal, Hiebeldorf, Mannheim...
“We could not choose a better country to live in,” says the German Christina, and the Jew Josef agrees with her, but not because there is something wrong with these lands or the labor of the inhabitants does not bring results, on the contrary - there would be a real idyll around, if not for the year 1919 and the Bolsheviks’ ravaging.
The script for Zaza Urushadze’s film “Anton” (2019) was based on the novel “Anton, His Friend and the Russian Revolution” written by a Canadian writer, Dale Eisler, a descendant of those German colonists. The prototype of the main character, 10-year-old Anton, is the author’s own uncle. The script was written by Dale Eisler, Zaza Urushadze and Vadim Yermolenko. “Anton” is a co-production of three countries – Georgia, Ukraine and Lithuania. Filming took place in Ukraine, Germany and Georgia. The main roles in the film are played by Ukrainian and German actors (Nikita Shlanchak, Mikit Dziad, Anton Sebastian, Natalia Ryumina and others). Georgians participated in the creative and technical teams of the production, director, cameraman, sound director, lighting and artists.
The story which is based on real events takes place in 1919. A new act of unification of the independent Ukrainian Republic and Western Ukraine has been adopted, which, in fact, will cease to exist in 1920, during the summer attack of the Bolshevik army. The film uses the example of a German village, Gildendorf, to show how these events are being prepared.
Here, in Ukraine, into a Jewish family was born Lev Trotsky (real name - Lev Bronstein), the Soviet Marxist, revolutionary and theoretician, later the founder of the Red Army, who said: “Without Ukrainian coal, iron ore, bread, salt, the Black Sea, Russia cannot exist, it will wither, and with it - the Soviet government and us, along with you.” Lev Trotsky is one of the important characters in the film. For him and his like-minded people, the territory, the crops or raw materials grown here, are more important than people. His theory of natural selection states that the most adapted wins the battle. Not the best, neither the strongest or the most perfect but the most adapted. His gangs of ruthless killers strive to establish total control, brutally punishing the rebels and their supporters...
Here, as a counterbalance to such a figure, the film's authors bring out 9-10-year-old children: Anton and Yasha. Ukraine is not a homeland neither for one, nor for the other but they don't want to go anywhere, the friends want to be together here. They have many questions: why the sea is called Black when it is green, or maybe the Dead Sea is alive, or why they don't like Jews...
The film's art director is Vadim Filippov, and the cinematographer is Mikhail Petrenko, who lives in Canada. His camera creates an amazing canvas, where the landscapes of fertile steppes and plains merge with the sky at the horizon line.
The sky is an important detail of this film. Here Anton and Yasha are looking for heaven, to see their dead family members.
At the very beginning of the film, we can see the sky. Little boys are watching the clouds:
- Well, look at that.
– It looks like a castle..
- No, it looks more like a cart, the cart that killed my brother.
– Do you miss him??
- Yes, he was a good boy.... Dad says that Moshe is in heaven...
- I didn't know if there was a heaven for Jews too.
– Is heaven the same for everyone?...?….
- If the Jews have their own heaven, I can't get there, and what kind of heaven is that if they don't have friends - says Anton and treats Yasha with red Easter eggs.
With adults, everything is different - the Whites and the Bolsheviks are opposing each other, and the people are squeezed in the middle. When the Bolsheviks were leaving Odessa, they took away the entire herd, burned down the barn, so that the Whites would have nothing left. The population loyal to them was taken out into the streets and every fifth one was shot. Soon they will also enter here, in the village of the film's heroes. "This is not our war," the Germans say, but they still take weapons in their hands. The rebellious colonists advanced, in some places they even blocked the railway. Trotsky himself arrives to deal with the situation. "If we capture Trotsky, we will not only save the Germans, we will save millions of people from the Bolshevik hell," says Father Friedrich, who is actually leading the armed resistance. This is not what he is supposed to do as a clergyman, and Friedrich knows this best. "Like you, the same doubts gnaw at me, I struggle with the same anger, the same despair - that God has abandoned us all. God is testing us, "- the pastor tells his followers.
But, as the Gospel says: "He who takes the sword will perish by the sword" (Matthew 26.52
Friedrich is a vengeful person, and so is little Yasha's father - the Jew Josef Hohmann, whose wife was raped and killed; or the Bolshevik Dora, who is called "the devil in a dress" because of her cruelty and ruthlessness, and her such cruelty comes from the tragedy she suffered in childhood; or Johann, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father. That is why each of them fails and dies. Evil incarnate will survive - Leon Trotsky, who can adapt and tolerate everything, take nothing to heart, feel neither love nor hatred. He advises the same his old acquaintance - priest Friedrich. "Should I also adapt to the environment? Should I also become like you? God, in his goodness, allows us to wander and make mistakes. But it is not he who rules who will survive, but he who serves. The seed of death will never sprout," answers the priest, who in the end cannot kill Trotsky, thereby condemning not only himself. His path has no future.
The future belongs to Anton and Iasha. They will see Leon Trotsky chained in the abandoned ruins, who will tell the children that he is a teacher, tortured by the Chekists and left for dead. Of course, the children will free him.
“Mom, what have we done?” asks Anton as he, his mother, and his sister leave the place without looking back and head for Germany. “We saved a person,” is his mom’s reply.
Later we learn that Anton fought in World War II, and Yasha was in a concentration camp, as his prisoner number is engraved on his hand. However, they did not become enemies, they did not forget each other, they searched for each other all their lives and even found each other. They are reunited by the sky, a photo of which they accidentally took many years ago with a camera, when they were naive children.
The film has a wonderful musical accompaniment (composers: Patrick Kennel and Miroslav Skoric). The undramatic, yet sad, heartfelt melody not only makes us think about the themes raised in the film, but also reminds us that “Anton” was the last film of its director, Zaza Urushadze, who died suddenly at the age of 53 and retained his “childhood” in himself and in his work.
Ketevan Pataraia
